By Jennifer Riley
Christian Post Reporter
Mon, May. 11 2009 03:36 PM EDT
"Though many of Christians would like to grow and develop on their path of faith, most are unsure what a "healthy, spiritually mature follower of Jesus"
A new Barna survey revealed on Monday that half of churchgoers cannot describe how their church defines a "healthy, spiritually mature follower of Jesus."
Even among born again Christians – a smaller subset group whose members say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ as their savior and confessed their sin – a significant portion was unable to say how their church defines spiritual maturity. Two out of five born again Christians could not answer the open-ended survey question...." (you can read the entire article here.)
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While reading this article I realized this is true for many Christians I have met. They wouldn't know how to describe maturity and so are not on the track to get there. Why bother if I don't know where "there" is? Almost everyone will admit to the desire to grow, but few know how and so they don't even try. This is a sad failure of the church in our day and will surely cost us in the days ahead. So, if you were to describe a mature Christian and how to become one what would you say?
Maturity:
ReplyDeleteLove the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
I don't know anyone who doesn't think they could grow in their love and devotion to the Lord and their love for others.
Many people when they take the time to look back can testify that there has been growth in both their love of the Lord and of other people.
Christian maturity? It is not what the world would think. As you cannot add a cubit to your hight, by force of will you cannot add to your christian maturity.
ReplyDeleteYes you can learn to say more of the correct things, and even to control how you act. That to the world looks like maturity.
The Mature Christian is the one that has the faith of a small child and to that child, their is nothing that his Father is not able to do in protecting and seeing to His childs needs. For that matter their is nothing good that the Father is not able and willing to do. Mike McM
Now this is a topic on which I could talk for hours.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the issue is the question (not Mikes, Barna's) We are such a goal oriented culture. I would love to hear different answers from other cultures because maturity in this life is a process, not a destination.
In 1 Cor 4:16 Paul said (paraphrasing here), "Look at me if you want to see what a mature Christian looks like." Imitate me.
I agree, Mike, that it is an enormous failure in our churches. It is here too. We are so very caught up in doing that we are forget that doing flows from being. We are disciples and we are to behave a certain way. Disciples behave like Christ. At least we're supposed to. And we are in the process of being made in the very image of Christ.
Two friends of ours here, Dave and Helen Ekstrom, are 84 and 83 and when they drop in for a visit Jenny and I stop whatever we are doing and just chat with them. Someone needs to write their stories down. Anyway, when they leave, we are just amazed. We feel like we have been spending time with Jesus. As we thought about that, we realized that those two people are more like Christ than anyone we have ever met. Being with them feels very much like being with Jesus.
How frustrating for people to not know WHO they are supposed to be like! We are supposed to imitate our Savior and it doesn't take much searching in the Bible to see what He is like. Our process is the person of Christ. He is the genesis, the process, and the goal. He is all and in all so that in all things He will be first.
There are numerous lists to describe how a believer should behave, but the reality of it is that we are to be like Christ. Period. That's our model. Paul modeled Christ and so he could just say, "Imitate me". The catch is that following Christ has a cost that most of us simply do not want to pay. Our comfort is just too valuable.
Sorry! I'll stop there.
Brandon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. You said, "Someone needs to write their stories down. Anyway, when they leave, we are just amazed. We feel like we have been spending time with Jesus. As we thought about that, we realized that those two people are more like Christ than anyone we have ever met. Being with them feels very much like being with Jesus."
May I ask that you and Jenny write down their stories? The someone you are looking for just might be you.
Ok Mike. I'll do it. They are on our Transformation team and may not be around too much longer.
ReplyDelete